Distribution of musical products by a web site vendor over the internet

ABSTRACT

The system and method permit the purchase of audio music files over the Internet. The PC user logs onto the vendor&#39;s web site and browses the songs available for purchase. The songs can be arranged by artist, music style, etc., as mentioned above. Further, the vendor can provide suggestions on the web site, directing the PC user to songs that might be desirable, based on that PC user&#39;s previous purchases, her indicated preferences, popularity of the songs, paid advertising and the like. If interested in a song, the PC user has the option of clicking on a song to “pre-listen” to it—hearing a 20-second clip, for example. If the PC user then wishes to purchase the song, she can submit her order by clicking on the icons located next to each song/album. The order will be reflected in the shopping basket, always visible on the screen. As the PC user selects more items, each and every item is displayed in the shopping basket. At any point in time, the PC user can review her selections, deleting items she no longer desires.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/116,918, filed on Jan. 22, 1999; U.S. Provisional Application No.60/116,910, filed on Jan. 22, 1999; U.S. Provisional Application No.60/116,779, filed on Jan. 22, 1999; U.S. Provisional Application No.60/116,917, filed on Jan. 22, 1999; U.S. Provisional Application No. 1060/116,780, filed on Jan. 22, 1999; and U.S. Provisional Application No.60/116,778, filed on Jan. 22, 1999.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to digital music downloading.More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and methodfor distributing digital music over the Internet by a web site vendor.

The Internet has offered opportunities for electronic commerce ofmassive proportions. Among other things, distribution of music over thecomputer-implemented global network is a well suited application ofe-commerce, whereby consumers can easily and quickly find and purchaseindividual tracks or entire albums. A need therefore exists for a systemand method that provide a music web site that is comprehensive,versatile, user-friendly, and protects the proprietary rights of artistsand other rights holders.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a digital musicdistribution web site.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a digital musicdistribution web site wherein a customer shopping list is always visibleon a display screen.

It is yet another object of the present invention to display a shoppinghistory for each registered user/customer for unlimited downloading ofthe previously purchased items.

It is still another object of the present invention to display a salesand royalty history for rights holders based on the sales of the productvia the web site.

It is still another object of the present invention to prohibit anunauthorized transfer of downloaded music files for playback by anunregistered user/customer.

The above and other objects are achieved by a system and method fordistributing products over the Internet. According to the presentinvention, a login screen is displayed on a video monitor that allows auser to enter an unique identifier for accessing database information.After the validity of the entered unique identifier is confirmed, ashopping list is displayed that lists items for purchase as selected bythe user. The listed items are in digital format suitable fordownloading to a user's computer connected to the Internet and are inother media format suitable for shipping to the user.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the listed itemsare either compact disks containing music recorded thereon or digitalmusic in an encoded format, and the shopping list is displayed on thevideo monitor as long as at least one item is contained therein.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a portion ofdigital music is retrieved from a database and the retrieved portion ofdigital music is then played for the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated in the figures of the accompanyingdrawings which are meant to be exemplary and not limiting, in which likereference characters refer to like or corresponding parts, and in which:

FIG. 1A shows an illustration of the video display screen as viewed bythe PC user after connecting to the vendor's web site for distributingmusical products;

FIG. 1B shows an illustration of the video display screen after the PCuser's login has been successfully completed;

FIG. 1C illustrates an option for the PC user to click on a song to“pre-listen” to it—hearing a 20-second clip, for example;

FIG. 1D is a block diagram of the network-based music distributionsystem according to the present invention;

FIG. 1E illustrates in detail the shopping basket containing the desireditems;

FIG. 2A shows an illustration of the monitor screen displaying anotherfeature of the network-based system according to the present invention;

FIG. 2B shows in detail the records reflecting previous purchases listedunder the “Past Orders” sub-heading;

FIG. 3A shows an illustration of the monitor screen displaying the userinterface for accessing the information on royalties;

FIG. 3B shows royalty information maintained as a historical record(showing all the royalties earned to date) or as an incremental record(showing all the royalties currently outstanding);

FIG. 3C is a block diagram of the sales sub-system for determining salesand royalties for the rights-holders in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 4A shows the name of the encoding format for digital music inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4B shows a portion of the screen displaying a music player forlistening to the downloaded music in the NETrax or MP3 format;

FIG. 4C shows a portion of the screen displaying the user interface forthe web site for distributing digital or analog music according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 4D shows a screen display whereby the search is performed by analbum;

FIGS. 4E-4L show screen displays in response to the PC user search bydifferent genres, such as electronica and dance, jazz, hip-hop, rap,R&B, country, rock and pop, world, children's and miscellaneous;

FIG. 5 shows a screen displaying a page for various other portions ofthe web site, whereby additional information may be obtained by clickingon the displayed heading or sub-heading;

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of the database structure in accordancewith the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of various software and hardware units(sub-systems), as well as database components, comprising the overallsystem of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As a general overview, the present invention includes a system andmethod for maintaining a music web site on the Internet. Consumers mayaccess the web site via a personal computer or any other wired orwireless Internet access device, such as WebTV, personal digitalassistant, cellular telephone, etc., to obtain a variety of services andproducts. For instance, a consumer may browse through artists, tracks oralbums, pre-listen to a portion of the song and purchase the selectedsong either by downloading the digital data to her computer hard driveor by placing a mail order for a compact disk (CD). A specially encodedor encrypted MP3 files called “NETrax” are delivered from a server overthe Internet or cable services to the end consumers' home PC.

The present invention is directed to, among other things, anetwork-based system for distribution of musical products over anetwork, such as the Internet for example. The system includes a serverplatform for processing user requests and other information associatedwith the operation of the system. The server is connected to a database,which may be remote or local, for storing data. The stored datarepresents digitized songs, text associated with each song such as trackname, album name, artist name, lyrics, etc., image data, graphics, etc.

The server is a node on a global computer-implemented network, such asthe Internet. As known to those skilled in the art, a network router maybe used to connect the server to the Internet for controlling the flowof data. Also connected to the Internet is a plurality of nodes, such aspersonal computers, Web devices, etc., under control by the users(hereinafter collectively referred to as PC users). The PC userscommunicate with the server using dial-up modems, cable modems, IDSN,DSL, etc., and using browser programs executing on their personalcomputers, as well known to those skilled in the art. Communicationlinks or sessions are established between the PC users and the server,via the Internet, when the PC users log onto the web site hosted by theserver.

In the preferred embodiment, a PC user logs on to the Internet to accessthe World Wide Web portion thereof using a web browser program. That is,the PC user selects and enters a URL address for the vendor's web siteon her computer, and a communication link is established between the PCuser and the selected vendor's web site. The request from the browsergoes out to the server using the Internet (HTTP) protocol. Using SQLcommands, the server then accesses the database maintaining therequested URL address information, and the HTML-based results aretransferred from the database to the server and subsequently to theclient's browser for display on the PC user display monitor.

FIG. 1A shows an illustration of the video display screen 10 as viewedby the PC user after connecting to the vendor's web site fordistributing musical products.

As shown in the figure, the web site display is divided into 2 portions:main portion 12 on the left side of the screen 10 contains fields forentering music-related search queries. For example, the PC user maysearch for desired songs by artist after entering the artist's name. Theoperation is carried out by various search engines for searchingrelational databases. Alternatively, the PC user may look for a song bytitle or album name. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 1A, songs and/oralbums attributed to different genres may be displayed on the screen inresponse to the PC user's selection.

Furthermore, a music player for playing the digital music downloaded viathe Internet from the server is displayed in the main section of thescreen. The music player, known as “MCY NETrax Player”, may bedownloaded to the PC also via the Internet from the server and containsoperation controls for listening to the downloaded digital music.

The main section contains various content under several headings andsub-headings. For example, FIG. 1A shows albums and/or songs under theheading “Featured Selections” as selectively featured on the web site.Under the “MCY Choice Cuts” heading, a number of songs/albums is listedas, once again, selected by the web site vendor. FIG. 1A also shows the“News” category, representatively profiling an artist, and under the“Interview” heading an interview with an artist is available forviewing. It is understood, of course, that other music content andcategories, headings, sub-headings, etc., may be provided on the website, including hyperlinks to other web sites, pages, etc. It is notedthat a vertical scroll bar may be required to view the content of theentire frame occupying the left portion of the screen.

The right portion of the display screen is independently controlled fromthe left portion and includes the “Shopping List” heading, as well asthe login procedure for PC users. In particular, when a PC user desiresto purchase a song or an album, she registers with the web site vendorusing the on-line login procedure. The registration comprises enteringthe username and password to gain access to the web site vendor'sproducts. When a new PC user logs in, she selects a username andpassword and then clicks on the “New User” software button on thescreen. The new PC user is then requested to re-confirm the selectedpassword by entering the password once more. If the password is properlyre-confirmed, she is allowed to purchase CDs, download digital music, ormake other purchases from the web site as described below. For repeatusers, after clicking on the “Login” software button, the enteredusername and password are compared with those stored in the databaseconnected to the server. If the match is found, the access to thepurchase transactions on the web site is validated, and the PC user ispermitted to shop for music and other goods. Otherwise, the errormessage is displayed, and the PC user is prohibited from buying themusic or other products. In this case, however, the PC user may stilluse the left portion of the screen to browse through various titles,read the news, etc., as described above.

FIG. 1B shows an illustration of the video display screen after the PCuser's login has been successfully completed. In this case, afterbrowsing through the available songs and albums, let it be assumed thatthe PC user decides to purchase two albums. By clicking on her selectionin the left portion of the screen, the desired items, either CD ordownloadable digital music, appear in the right portion under the “MCYShopping List” heading.

Namely, as the PC user browses through the web site, she can selectitems of interest for purchase. These items are displayed in a “shoppingbasket,” that is, the right portion of the PC user's computer screen asshown in FIG. 1B. The shopping basket is displayed continuously if thereis at least one item therein. Alternatively, the shopping basket can bedisplayed continuously even when empty. Among other things, the shoppingbasket can display the name and quantity of the items selected, as wellas the cost. The shopping basket can also indicate the total cost of theitems in the shopping basket, as shown in FIG. 1B.

In the preferred embodiment, the system permits the purchase of audiomusic files over the Internet. The PC user logs onto the vendor's website and browses the songs available for purchase. The songs can bearranged by artist, music style, etc., as mentioned above. Further, thevendor can provide suggestions on the web site, directing the PC user tosongs that might be desirable, based on that PC user's previouspurchases, her indicated preferences, popularity of the songs, paidadvertising and the like. If interested in a song, the PC user has theoption of clicking on a song to “pre-listen” to it—hearing a 20-secondclip, for example—as illustrated in FIG. 1C. If the PC user then wishesto purchase the song, she can submit her order by clicking on the iconslocated next to each song/album, as also shown in FIG. 1C. The orderwill be reflected in the shopping basket, always visible on the screen.As the PC user selects more items, each and every item is displayed inthe shopping basket (to the extent that space permits—a scroll bar maybe necessary should the PC user select a large number of items). At anypoint in time, the PC user can review her selections, deleting items sheno longer desires. When the PC user has developed a satisfactory list,she can submit her order by clicking on the “Purchase Items” button, asillustrated in FIG. 1E showing the magnified right portion of thescreen, including the shopping basket. The purchased items will bedelivered immediately over the Internet to the user's computer if theselected music is in downloadable digital format. The user can thenlisten to the song at his computer or download it onto a portableplayer. Those items that are not available in digital format or asrequested by the PC user, will be processed accordingly.

According to the present invention, the network-based system describedabove includes an e-commerce platform, suited particularly for thedigital distribution of audio files (named NETrax), as well as regularmail order. The shopping basket provides a unique feature capable ofhandling heterogeneous products, such as the listing of audio files andany other digital files that after purchasing can be delivered digitallydirectly through the net, and traditional mail order products. Accordingto one aspect of the present invention, all these products can beconveniently placed onto one shopping list even though they are nothomogeneous. Conveniently, the customer can place digital orders (suchas NETrax) and will get those delivered immediately via digital deliveryover the internet to her PC; additionally, all other orders of finishedproduct entered into the shopping list will be shipped to her home bymail, such as a private courier, for example.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the shoppingbasket is always visible on the right side of the screen. The on-lineconsumer is thus able to constantly monitor the contents of her shoppinglist and the cost associated with her spending spree. By making theshopping basket visible on the screen all the time eliminates any hiddenfactors or charges, and it is always clear to the consumer what sheintends to purchase.

By clicking on the product, visible on the “MCY Shopping List”, theconsumer can receive a detailed description of the product on the listbefore purchase. FIG. 1C representatively illustrates the details of thealbum entitled “Air Moon Safari” in the left portion of the screen,which is displayed in response to the pointer—the hand tool 16—activatedby the user to select the desired item (“Air Moon Safari”) in theshopping basket.

FIG. 1D is a block diagram of the network-based music distributionsystem according to the present invention. An on-line customer, such asthe PC user 18 described above, logs onto a vendor's web site 20 via theInternet. The vendor's web site 20 is representatively shown in thefigure as MCY MediaCity™. It is understood, of course, that the web siteas shown in FIG. 1D is supported by a server having specific softwareand hardware configurations, such as Sun Microsystems mid-range computerwith Windows operating system for executing applications programswritten in Java, HTML or other programming language.

On the web site, the on-line customer may pre-listen to the desiredmusic prior to the purchase. Following the pre-listen operation, theon-line customer may place an order for an immediate digital delivery ofthe selected music, book, etc., if available in digital format.Alternatively, she can order the selected information, such as text,moving or still images, graphics, etc., to be downloaded to hercomputer. Yet another option is to mail order CDs, video cassettes ordisks, books, etc., for delivery to the designated place, such as home,place of work, friend's home. Still another option for the on-lineconsumer is to mail order a personally compiled CD containing selectionsfrom various artists, as specifically prepared by the web site vendor.Of course, those and additional buying options are presented to theon-line consumer via the graphical user interface (GUI) on the web site.

Continuing further with the description of FIG. 1D, regardless of thetype of order or type of media selected by the on-line consumer, thedesired items are placed in the shopping basket 22, as illustrated indetail in FIG. 1E. The on-line consumer may delete the items from theshopping basket or pre-listen to the tracks prior to the final purchase.After the list in the shopping basket 22 is finalized, the on-lineconsumer is requested to pay for the purchase. A charge may be madedirectly to the on-line consumer's credit card 24, or the payment may betendered in other ways as customary in the trade. After confirming thereceipt of payment, the product is delivered to the consumer. Thedelivery 26 is carried out by downloading the purchased digital music ortext/graphics of the purchased information. Such operation requires thesystem's digital delivery software module to access a database forstoring digital music, text, graphics, images, etc., requesting a copyof the purchased items, copying the purchased items from the databaseand transferring the copies of the purchased items to the consumer viathe communications link established with the consumer's PC over theInternet.

If the purchased items are to be delivered by mail, then the system'smail delivery software module accesses a database for storingtrack/album titles available in CD format or titles of books, disks orother products available in the appropriate tangible medium. The titlesof the purchased items are retrieved and transferred to a terminalcontrolled by a live operator. The operator may then contact arecord/book warehouse, book/video shop for hard to find and specialorder items, or other contractual arrangements for outsourcing the orderas customary in the industry. The operator subsequently supplies thecustomer's name and shipping address for fulfillment of the order,whereby the purchased items are shipped directly to the customer underthe web site vendor's name.

FIG. 2A shows an illustration of the monitor screen 10 displayinganother feature of the network-based system according to the presentinvention. The right portion of the screen lists tracks and/or albumspreviously purchased by the PC user. In particular, after authorizingthe PC user's login as described above, the system's “history” softwaremodule accesses the database for storing record information for allprevious sales activity. Those records pertaining to the PC user'spurchases are selected by the module and transferred to the displaysoftware module for displaying on the screen. The records reflectingprevious purchases are listed under the “Past Orders” sub-heading, asshown in detail in FIG. 2B.

The shopping history subsystem allows every customer who has everpreviously shopped on the web site to access a list of all products thatthe consumer has purchased in the past. The access to the past purchasesis provided after typing in a username and password. After entering thisinformation, the PC user finds all products previously purchased at thelower portion of the shopping list. All items obtained at the web siteare displayed, and a vertical scroll bar may be required if the list islong. By clicking on one of these items, the main frame of the web sitedisplays the product purchased. The customer can then go back andpre-listen to the songs (NETrax), as well as download the NETrax songsthat were previously purchased.

In another aspect of the present invention, the inventive network-basedsystem allows authors, composers, publishers and all related artists ofa music product (collectively referred to as rights-holders) to have24-hour, 7-day a week access to the worldwide sales of their product.FIG. 3A shows an illustration of the monitor screen 10 displaying theuser interface for accessing the information on royalties.

A rights-holder accesses a web page for entering the properidentification information. As shown in the figure, login name andpassword are required for gaining access to the sales information. Afterentering the identifier, including the login name or username andpassword, the rights-holder is presented with a complete list of time,date and product name, amount, pricing and sales of the productdistributed through the web site vendor. For example, royalty collectionsocieties get access 24 hours/day, 7 days/week to the digitaldistribution platform where they can access the digitally distributedNETrax sales and then can collect money from the relevant parties.

The sales sub-system of the present invention maintains a record on acomputer database (or the like) of all the purchases ever made by theuser. Certain products and services will generate revenue for thirdparty rights holders. For example, songwriters and royalty societieswill obtain revenue based on the sales of records and songs. Thesub-system permits the rights holders to access the web page of thecomputer system and determine what royalties they have generated. Thisroyalty information can be maintained as a historical record (showingall the royalties earned to date) or as an incremental record (showingall the royalties currently outstanding), as illustrated in FIG. 3B.

The rights-holders for a particular song can access the web site anddetermine that a particular song was purchased, how many times the songwas purchased, what the cost of the song was and what royalties are dueto the rights holder. Of course, other information about the sale can bepresented to the rights-holder, as desired by the designer of theparticular system.

FIG. 3C is a block diagram of the sales sub-system for determining salesand royalties for the rights-holders in accordance with the presentinvention. After a customer 30 buys a track or album via the web site asdescribed above, the sales information is stored to a database 32 at MCYMusic web site. A rights-holder may access the stored information viathe Internet to check for royalties due.

After the login, the rights-holder may decide, for example, to check thesales for a particular album for the last 6 months. The sales trackingmodule accesses the sales information stored to the database after eachcustomer's purchase transaction and then selects only the salesinformation pertaining to the desired album for the last 6 months. Theselected information is then transferred to the display module fordisplay.

In one aspect of the present invention, the rights-holder is restrictedto the sales information stored in the database based on her connectionto the commercial product. For example, composers, authors andpublishers may be allowed to view one type of sales information, whileperformers, such as singers, musicians, etc., can view another types ofsales information. In addition, the system can calculate the dollaramount to be collected by the requesting rights-holder if apredetermined percentage from the sales is supplied by therights-holder. For example, if a performer collects 5% from the sale ofher album, then the system can calculate the total dollar amount owed tothe performer during a specified period of time in accordance with thespecified royalty rate.

As described above, once the PC user purchases a song or album indigital format, she can download the purchased music to her PC manytimes. In case her PC is damaged, the customer retains the right to theunlimited access after the purchase in case various eventualities occur,for example a crash of the hard drive or some other damage to the PC. Inaccordance with another aspect of the present invention, however, thisunlimited access to the web site vendor's database does not allow the PCuser to take advantage of this feature of the present invention forillegal purposes. For example, it appears as if the PC user may purchasea song, download it to her hard drive and then transfer the downloadedmusic to a portable storage medium or to another PC user via theInternet for playback.

To prevent the playback of the digital music that is illegallytransferred from the purchaser, each song, album, or other property indigital format is assigned an identifier or key. This customer key iscreated for each user/customer corresponding to the username/passwordpair. Prior to the first download (namely, the first time that thecustomer desires to purchase a song through download), she logs in byentering username and password as described above. When the login isconfirmed, the customer is supplied a key, which may be encrypted orunencrypted, over a secure network. The customer is not aware of thistransfer from the server, and the actual key is never in the clear,never displayed to the customer.

The received key is then appended with additional data. This additionaldata uniquely identifies the customer's PC. For example, someinformation from the customer's hard drive or other computerhardware/software component may be added to the key. Alternatively, someother component information, either as a prefix or suffix, may becombined with the received key. As a result, the new key uniquelyidentifies the customer and the customer's hardware. This key is thenstored to the customer hard drive.

Prior to downloading a song, a key for the requesting customer isinserted into a header of the song. After the download, the key embeddedin the header is used for comparing with the key on the customer's harddrive. Only if the two pieces of information provide an exact match, thesong will be played at the customer's computer. Thus, if the customerdecides to transfer a downloaded song to her friend, the song will notbe played at her friend's computer because the new computer will notcontain data that will match the key embedded in the song header.

The file stored to the customer's hard drive may contain more than 1key. For example, a key ring file may contain 3 keys, wherein each keyis used by a different PC user.

FIG. 4A shows the name of the encoding format for digital music, wherebythis format allows the header supplied to each digital file to containthe key for identifying the requester of information. Namely, as soon asthe customer requests the NETrax song for downloading, the keycorresponding to that customer is inserted into the header of the NETraxsong for matching as described above.

FIG. 4B shows a portion of the screen displaying a music player 40 forlistening to the downloaded music in the NETrax or MP3 format. Theplayer 40 has “software” buttons for controlling the music playback thatis similar to the conventional controls on the player. The player mayplay songs encoded in other formats, such as MP3 for example.

FIG. 4C shows a portion of the screen displaying the user interface forthe web site for distributing digital or analog music as describedabove. Various search engines are available to the PC user to browsethrough the on-line selections and to purchase the desired music. FIG.4D shows a screen display whereby the search is performed by an album.FIGS. 4E-4 show screen displays in response to the PC user search bydifferent genres, such as electronica and dance, jazz, hip-hop, rap,R&B, country, rock and pop, world, children's and miscellaneous.

FIG. 5 shows a screen displaying a page for various other portions ofthe web site, whereby additional information may be obtained by clickingon the displayed heading or sub-heading. A new web page will then bedisplayed for listing the requested information.

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of the database structure in accordancewith the present invention. A central server 60 is connected to adatabase which is a repository of sound files in digital format fordownloading to the PC users. Another portion of the database containsuser accounts, wherein each account holds user ID, password, key, andpointers to the purchased music in the database. Still another portionof the database contains a historical list of all items sold, either indigital format or CD. For each sold item, its title, price, artist name,etc., are maintained in the database, which is used for checking royaltyinformation as described above.

FIG. 6 also shows regional servers 62 for accessing the centraldatabase. These local servers may contain information in their databasesthat is unique to a particular region of the world.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of various software and hardware units(sub-systems), as well as database components, comprising the overallsystem of the present invention. It is understood that although severaldatabases are listed in FIG. 7 in the preferred embodiment, therepository of data and information may be implemented as a singledatabase. Similarly, two or more separate software sub-systemsillustrated in FIG. 7 may be combined into one sub-system performingthose functions as the individual sub-systems.

While the invention has been described and illustrated in connectionwith preferred embodiments, many variations and modifications as will beevident to those skilled in this art may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention, and the invention is thus not tobe limited to the precise details of methodology or construction setforth above as such variations and modification are intended to beincluded within the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for distributing products over theInternet, comprising: means for displaying a login screen on a videomonitor that allows a user to enter an unique identifier for accessingdatabase information; means for confirming the validity of the enteredunique identifier; and means for displaying a shopping list that listsitems for purchase as selected by said user, the listed items being indigital format suitable for downloading to a user's computer connectedto the Internet and being in other media format suitable for shipping tosaid user.
 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the listed itemsare either compact disks containing music recorded thereon or digitalmusic in an encoded format.
 3. The system according to claim 2, whereinsaid means for displaying displays said shopping list on said videomonitor as long as at least one item is contained in said shopping list.4. The system according to claim 3, further comprising means forretrieving a portion of digital music from a database and means forplaying the retrieved portion of digital music.
 5. The system accordingto claim 4, further comprising means for maintaining a shopping historylist for said user for display on said video monitor.
 6. The systemaccording to claim 5, wherein said user is permitted to download anunlimited number of times previously purchased items selected from saidshopping history list.
 7. The system according to claim 5, wherein saiduser is permitted to download a preselected number of times previouslypurchased items selected from said shopping history list.
 8. The systemaccording to claim 3, further comprising means for calculating royaltiesfrom the sale proceeds of digital music and compact disks and means fordisplaying the results of the calculation.
 9. The system according toclaim 8, wherein said royalties are calculated for a user-selectablepredetermined period of time.
 10. The system according to claim 1,wherein said means for displaying displays items available for purchaseor browsing in a first portion of the display and displays said shoppinglist in a second portion of the display, said display consisting of saidfirst and second portions.
 11. The system according to claim 4, furthercomprising means for searching through said items available for purchaseor browsing in said first portion of the display using a user selectablesearch criterion.
 12. A method for distributing products over theInternet, comprising: displaying a login screen on a video monitor thatallows a user to enter an unique identifier for accessing databaseinformation; confirming the validity of the entered unique identifier;and displaying a shopping list that lists items for purchase as selectedby said user, the listed items being in digital format suitable fordownloading to a user's computer connected to the Internet and being inother media format suitable for shipping to said user.
 13. The methodaccording to claim 12, wherein the listed items are either compact diskscontaining music recorded thereon or digital music in an encoded format.14. The method according to claim 13, wherein said shopping list isdisplayed on said video monitor as long as at least one item iscontained in said shopping list.
 15. The method according to claim 14,further comprising retrieving a portion of digital music from a databaseand playing the retrieved portion of digital music.
 16. The methodaccording to claim 15, further comprising maintaining a shopping historylist for said user for display on said video monitor.
 17. The methodaccording to claim 16, wherein said user is permitted to download anunlimited number of times previously purchased items selected from saidshopping history list.
 18. The method according to claim 14, furthercomprising calculating royalties from the sale proceeds of digital musicand compact disks and displaying the results on said video monitor. 19.The method according to claim 18, wherein said royalties are calculatedfor a user-selectable predetermined period of time.
 20. The methodaccording to claim 12, wherein items available for purchase or browsingare displayed in a first portion of the display and said shopping listis displayed in a second portion of the display, said display consistingof said first and second portions.
 21. The method according to claim 15,further comprising searching through said items available for purchaseor browsing in said first portion of the display using a user selectablesearch criterion.